


Victory Tastes Sweet

by Fangirlshrewt97



Series: Nile Freeman's Guide to Down Time with Immortal Warriors [5]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Games, Gen, Humor, JUST GIVE IT A TRY, Nile introduces her to a new part of it, Quynh is still new to the 21st century, Team Bonding, Team as Family, and at the end the whole team sits down and teases each other, brief description of character losing a limb, but they regrow it, it's cute i promise, this fic is mostly Nile observing Quynh guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25879492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlshrewt97/pseuds/Fangirlshrewt97
Summary: Nile smiled back. “I had to regrow a whole foot apparently and was passed out for the majority of it thank God. But recovering from a major injury means we are allowed as much junk food as we want. Hence the chips and chocolate.”“This century's chocolate is too sweet.” Quynh said.Another thing about being under the sea, language evolves quickly. Quynh had been able to speak English, but it was 500 years out of date, so now she was learning modern English. Her accent was there, not as strong as Nicky’s, but just odd enough to draw eyes whenever they went to an English-speaking country.“Probably, but it’s what I’ve grown up with.” Nile shrugged.“What were you doing with your phone?” Quynh asked after a minute.“Oh, just a stupid game.” Nile said with a half-chuckle.“A…game?” Quynh asked hesitantly.Phones were difficult to explain, but Nile just did it as though she was teaching grandparents. Who were several times older than her whole country. No biggie.“Yeah. There are games you can download and play in them.” Nile said.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Nile Freeman & Quynh | Noriko
Series: Nile Freeman's Guide to Down Time with Immortal Warriors [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851712
Comments: 46
Kudos: 344





	Victory Tastes Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I had a hard time with this entry because I really wanted a piece with Nile and Quynh but we know next to nothing of Quynh, so I have no idea if this will work later. Finding something innocuous for them to bond over was also difficult, so I hope my choice is satisfactory. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please let me know with kudos/comments (which can include keyboard smashes, one word comments, or favorite lines!)
> 
> Warning: There is a brief paragraph at the top of the story of an explosion blowing up half of Nile's leg that she has to regrow, but it is not too explicit. 
> 
> The story is not beta'd, so all errors are my own.
> 
> Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, I am just borrowing them temporarily. Candy Crush is also not mine.
> 
> Enjoy,
> 
> Fangirlshrewt97

The safe house is quiet when Nile wakes up. Based on the light filtering through the window, it is probably mid-afternoon. Sighing heavily, she turns to the other bed in the room. It is messily made, a habit of Booker’s that she has not gotten used to, and she’s not sure if that is her mother’s or her military training that urges her to fix the bed. She gently flexes the toes in her right foot, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding at the feeling of her wiggling toes.

The mission was supposed to have been easy, which is why it had gone sideways ten minutes into the job. They had been told by Copley the facility was lightly guarded, and the satellite images had only shown 15 bodies, so 10 hostiles, and the 5 children they had kidnapped. It should have been a quick grab, kill, exit, but they had not known the men had had access to some serious explosives inside the compound. Booker had barely managed to herd the children out, with Nicky covering him from his sniper’s perch, when the first bomb went off.

Andy had pulled Quynh fast enough out of the room they had only had some minimal shrapnel embedded in them. Joe and Nile were bringing up the tail, Joe having cleared the room, and was making his way to the exit when Nile saw a flash from the corner of her eye. She had reacted faster than she could speak, shoving Joe clear of the room before the grenade hit the wall behind her, throwing her backwards into the room, and taking a chunk of her right leg with it.

She wasn’t quite sure what had happened after that, blacking out from the pain. She vaguely recalled waking up at one point, held tightly to Joe’s chest and voices blurred above her before passing out again. Well, at least the mission was done. Moving carefully, despite knowing her body would have fully healed itself by now, she set her feet gently on the ground. Someone had thoughtfully put socks on her feet. If she had to guess, she’d say Nicky. She gently ran her fingers over her right foot, unable to reconcile the fact that only a few (how long had she been passed out? How long does it take for a whole limb to regenerate anyways? She checked her phone. Damn it, she had been out for 30 hours) - 30 hours ago, the grenade had taken it her foot out till halfway up her shin.

She stood up, instinctively putting her weight on her left foot before slowly shifting the weight onto both feet. Her right foot didn’t buckle. Good sign. Encouraged, Nile grabbed her phone from the bedside table and walked outside her room to the hallway.

The house was still quiet, and the bedroom doors were all cracked open, which meant no one was there. Weird. She made her way to the living room/kitchen area of the apartment Copley had secured for them. It was too cramped for six people but they had been assuming they’d only be here for two nights, and hadn’t put up too much of a fuss. The apartment was still lacking the presence of any of the other immortals so Nile made her way to the kitchenette and freed a bag of chips and M&Ms from the pantry before moving to the couch. Left with nothing to do, Nile put on her earphones and started her playlist before opening Candy Crush.

She had managed to make her way past three levels, and kept the swearing to a minimum, when a shadow at the corner of her eye had her jumping up for a gun she did not have on her. Luckily, it was only Quynh. Unluckily, this meant Andy would definitely hear about her lapse of situational awareness and lecture her.

“Quynh. I didn’t hear you come back!” she tried.

“I know.”

Right. Ever since Quynh had returned, and then returned again after leaving with Andy to kiss and make-up or whatever, the woman had mostly kept to herself. Or actually no, she talked to everyone else, just not Nile. And Nile tried not to take it personally, Quynh had known the elder three immortals for nearly 500 years before she was sent underwater, and spent months alone with Booker. Their bond was equally strong and weird, but none of the others dared to question it. They all pretended things were normal, but at times, they walked on eggshells around her, and Nile seemed to be the only one who noticed how this made Quynh tense.

“So um… where are the others?”

“Shopping.”

“Ah…and why are you not with them?”

“Too many people.”

Spending five centuries in the seabed surrounded by nothing but cold water and the vibrations of your own screams as even light to struggled to pierce through the darkness really deprived one’s senses. The actual consequence of introducing a person who had had sensory deprivation for so long to the modern world which could overwhelm even those born and brought up in the 21st century was sensory overload.

Nile suspected that the trip Quynh had taken with Andy was as much to find where they stood in their relationship as well as a way to hide from the world. If she were a betting woman, she would bet they had spent the months holed up in a literal cave.

“What are you doing?” Quynh asked, pulling Nile out of her thoughts. Nile glanced at her hands before looking at Quynh.

“Relaxing.”

Quynh’s eyebrow raised.

Nile smiled back. “I had to regrow a whole foot apparently and was passed out for the majority of it thank God. But recovering from a major injury means we are allowed as much junk food as we want. Hence the chips and chocolate.”

“This century's chocolate is too sweet.” Quynh said.

Another thing about being under the sea, language evolves quickly. Quynh had been able to speak English, but it was 500 years out of date, so now she was learning modern English. Her accent was there, not as strong as Nicky’s, but just odd enough to draw eyes whenever they went to an English-speaking country. Then again, her appearance probably drew it more than her speech.

“Probably, but it’s what I’ve grown up with.” Nile shrugged.

“What were you doing with your phone?” Quynh asked after a minute.

“Oh, just a stupid game.” Nile said with a half-chuckle.

“A…game?” Quynh asked hesitantly.

Phones were difficult to explain, but Nile just did it as though she was teaching grandparents. Who were several times older than her whole country. No biggie.

“Yeah. There are games you can download and play in them.” Nile said. She moved the bag of chips from the couch to the floor before shifting to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Quynh so she could see her screen. “This one is called Candy Crush.”

“Candy…crush?”

“Yeah. The objective is to crush all the candy.”

“Why?”

Nil shrugged. “It is just a way to waste time.”

Quynh looked unconvinced. “There is so much to do nowadays, why would anyone want to waste time?”

Nile blew out a breath, thinking about it. “Because there is so many things people need to do, and sometimes don’t have the time for. Because so many are subject to limitations that deprive them control over their own lives. You’re stressed because your boss needs this project done quickly. Your teacher told you you have an exam two days before. Your rent is due and you’re not sure how you’ll afford it. Phone games are usually free and allow you to take a break from the world, to let go of some of the stress of the real world. Plus,” she exited the level she was playing, “it makes our monkey brains really happy to smash colourful things.”

At Quynh’s confused furrow of her eyebrows, Nile bit down a laugh and exited the level she was playing, scrolling all the way back to level 1. “Here, let me show you. Ok, so since this is level 1, the game will be giving hints and showing you how to play.” Nile explained. She swiped the yellow candy as instructed, and then the green. The game autocompleted a few moves, leaving her with a striped green, so she made the combo. She used her last move to create a wrapped candy. “Ok see, I finished this level. In this bar here? This shows the targets for each level, so in some levels you need to earn a certain score within an allocated number of moves. In others, they might asked you to make a certain amount of combos with a particular candy. If you have spare moves once you achieve the target, you get extra points.”

Quynh’s jaw was clenched, with an expression on her face Nile was quickly recognizing as frustration.

“It’s not that hard Quynh, it’s actually pretty intuitive once you’ve played a few levels. Do you want to try?” Nile asked.

Quynh bit her lip, concentrating on the screen before giving a sharp nod. Nile smiled. “Great. Here take the phone.”

Quynh held the phone warily, as though afraid it would bite her.

“Relax Quynh. Here, hold it like this.” Nile said, rearranging the phone to settle in her palm. “So the screen is showing our final score, which is 4430 for this round OK?”

Quynh nodded.

“You can earn up to three stars in each round, you earn more the less moves you need to complete that level’s goal.”

“Alright.”

“Great, here click the next button.”

Quynh tapped the screen hard, and Nile resisted the urge to wince. “Ok, the screen is pretty sensitive, so even if you touch it lightly it will work ok.” The title card for the next level showed on screen. “Go ahead, click next again.”

Quynh did.

A bigger board than the previous one appeared, and there was a prompt from the game to create a striped candy. Quynh did the move. “Alright, good job. So striped candy have a special power, that when you use them in a combo, they will eliminate all the candy in that row or column. And you can make them by creating a combo of 4 candies of the same type.”

Quynh nodded. The screen prompted her to use the striped candy so she did, and the entire row was eliminated. “See, just like that.”

“Hmm.”

“Right, now we need to get a score of 1900 to complete the level. Um, ok, you can swipe this purple to make a combo.” Nile pointed out. Quynh did so. “Nice. And oh look, swipe this green here. Look, a striped candy. Now what do those do?”

“Use in combo. Whole row disappears.”

Nile beamed at Quynh. “Want to try it by yourself?”

Quynh nodded. Nile sat back against the cushion as Quynh played.

It was almost adorable, watching this woman who was several millenia old sitting in a couch in a safe house in Prague playing Candy crush.

Quynh made a sound, so Nile leaned forward to see her screen, and saw she had two striped candies next to each other. “Hold on Quynh, you see how these two are next to each other, if you use them together you will get a special move where both the row and the column disappear.”

“But one is yellow and one is purple.”

“Doesn’t matter for powered up candy. Try it.”

Quynh made a pleased hum when the move worked. She did one more swipe of an orange candy before the level finished.

“Nicely done Quynh!” Nile said, holding her hand out for a high five.

Quynh looked at her hand blankly for a second before tentatively slapping it with her own.

Nile laughed. “Next level?”

Quynh gave her a small smile of her own, a new spark in her eyes as she turned to the phone and pressed next.

Nile just sat back and watched Quynh play, enjoying seeing the microexpressions of joy and frustration warring on her face. She picked up the book that was near the couch, _Anna Karerina_ , Booker’s then. At least it was in English. She settled on the couch and read.

Before either of them noticed, the sky outside them had darkened considerably, a feast of pinks and oranges that creeped into the apartment.

Nile stood to use the bathroom and turned on the lights. When Nile looked at her phone, she gasped, making Quynh look sharply at her.

“Sure you’ve never played before Quynh? You’re already at level 20!” Nile asked playfully, raising an eyebrow. Nile thought she could make out the beginnings of a blush.

“It is easy enough now. I did have to repeat a few levels.” Quynh replied.

“That’s ok. You’re a natural.” Nile assured her.

Quynh gave a self-satisfied smile to the phone. “The brown candy is fun to use.”

Nile laughed. “Yeah it is. If you ever get two brown candies and swap them, they clear out the whole board.”

“Really?” Quynh looked intrigued.

“Yup.” Nile said.

She looked at Nile’s phone again. “Can I have this game in my phone too?” she asked.

“Absolutely.” Nile said. “Do you have your phone with you?”

Quynh stood up. “It’s in my bag. I’ll get it.” and gave Nile back her own phone.

Nile watched the older woman with fondness. She may not know a lot about this woman, only the tragic parts, but she had seen beneath her shell today, if only for a second, and Nile was determined to bring her back out. Quynh had joy inside of her the world had buried and drowned for five centuries. It was time it broke through the surface too.

///

By the time the others got back to the apartment, the sky was dark, with the regular handful of stars that can be seen in cities. Nile had found a packet of instant noodles she had started to boil when they trudged into the apartment, laden with bags. Quynh had said she’d wait for the others, but accepted the apple juice Nile had found in the back of the fridge.

“Welcome back.” Nile said as her eyebrows raised when the dining table filled with enough bags to make it groan. “Did you guys buy out a whole shopping mall or what?”

“Nile!” Joe exclaimed before twirling her off the ground in a bear hug that had her laughing. “Good to see you on your feet!”

“Are you making instant noodles?” Nicky said, nose wrinkling as they always did when he encountered the, in his opinion, processed junk.

“I got hungry waiting for you people to get back from Antwerp or wherever you went that took you a whole day to get back!” Nile said.

“Sorry kid, once Quynh came back, we called Copley and told him we are taking a few weeks off to do some R&R. And then realized we needed to buy stuff cause we didn’t have anything.” Booker added from where he was ducked behind the fridge door. He made a noise of triumph when he found a couple apples. He tossed one to Joe who caught it.

“We’re staying in this apartment for three weeks?” Nile asked, horrified.

Joe laughed at her face. “No, no, there is a safe house waiting for us a couple hours from here. We leave in the morning.”

“Speaking of, where is Quynh?” Andy said as she slid into one of the barstools by the kitchen counter.

“I’m here Andy.” Quynh said, emerging from the direction of the bathroom. She made her way to the eldest immortal’s side, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

Joe set the apple on the counter and got up.

“So what were you up to while we were shopping?” Joe asked as he pulled her away from the kitchen. She started to make a noise of protest, but Nicky waved her off.

“Playing on my phone. Then reading.” Nile said.

“Hmm. Worthy pursuits.” Joe commented as he led her to the dining table. He dropped her hand to rifle through the bags until he found what he was looking for, taking out what looked like a bakery box. “This is for you!”

Raising one eyebrow, Nile opened the box, only to groan at the inside. “Donuts!”

“It’s for getting blown up.” Booker said as he collapsed into the chair next to her.

“What?” Nile asked, confused.

“It’s a tradition. Whenever we go through particularly painful deaths like that, we celebrate recovering from them. We only do it for the first time you die like that though, otherwise it’d be too depressing.”

“Yeah, cause getting congratulatory donuts because I lost my foot is not depressing at all.” Nile said, sarcasm heavy in her voice.

“It is not for losing you foot.” Nicky explained as he emerged from the kitchen with a bowl in his hands. He cleared the table in front of her enough to place the bowl. “Sit. It is for regrowing it.”

Nile sat and handed the box to Nicky, who took it and set it on the counter, batting away Andy’s wandering hands. “Nile gets first pick.”

Snorting a laugh, Nile ate the noodles Nicky had prepared. She bit back a groan, it was not fair how the man could turn a 2-dollar box of instant noodles into a delicacy. “The noodles are great Nicky, thank you. By the way Joe, that tradition is still morbid as hell.”

“Our lives are morbid as hell.” Booker said from his place next to the couch. When had he gotten up? “Were you reading my book?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, it was the only English one I could find.” Nile apologized.

Booker shook his head. “It’s fine. We can discuss it after you finish it?”

Nile grinned. “Sounds good.”

“Anna Karerina is what’s depressing Nile.” Joe intoned seriously, only to laugh as he caught the pillow Booker threw at him while cursing him in French.

“So were donuts the only sweets you bought?”

Nicky scoffed. “We went with Andy, of course we bought more. Here, there’s-” he said as he rifled through the bags himself before pulling out a colorful packet. “here it is!”

Nile nearly choked at the sight of it, causing Nicky to thump her in the back. “Nile!”

Nile waved her hand. “I’m fine sorry. Quynh!” she called. Quynh and Andy had been speaking between themselves in a language older than any of the others in the room, but Quynh looked up when Nile called her. “Come here.” she called her again.

Nile set down her bowl and took the packet from Nicky’s hand, pulling it open from the top as Quynh came to stand beside her. Nile could feel Andy behind her, and the curious stares of the rest of the group. “Look.”

She upturned the packet so half of its contents fell on the table. A variety of hard candies were there, in yellows and oranges and reds and greens. A few had transparent wrappings, others had fruits in the wrapping. Some had wrappers twisted into the shape of a pineapple.

Quynh laughed softly behind her, and when Nile turned to catch her eye, felt warmth spread through her at the sight of delight in them. Quynh reached for the candy, running her hand over the assortment before picking up a green square packet. “Just like the game!”

“Yup!” Nile beamed.

“What are you two talking about?” Andy asked her, and when Nile twisted her neck the other way to look at her, saw blank confusion on her face.

“Nile taught me a new game today.”

“Game?” Joe asked, eyebrows raised.

“Yes.” Quynh said as she opened the candy in her hand. She popped the green oval into her mouth. “Called Candy Crush.”

Booker groaned while Nicky laughed, and Andy stared at Nile disbelievingly. And because Nile could be impish when she wanted, she winked at Andy, setting off Joe to join Nicky in laughing.

Bonus:

“Tastes like watermelon.” Quynh remarked amid the laughter, making the rest of the group break.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go, I hope you enjoyed this entry, and if you did, please let me know, reading your comments makes me so happy!
> 
> Also, I am still open to different 'bonding' ideas between this immortal family, so if you have any, please feel free to share.
> 
> And finally, if you want to come chat, you can find me at fangirlshrewt97.tumblr.com!


End file.
